High-School Honor Students “Bowl With a Cop”

Recently, some lucky high-school students got to take quite a unique field trip—to bowl and eat pizza with officers from the North District! The event, called “Bowl With a Cop,” was organized by the North District’s Community Policing Team as a way to reward top-performing students at Wakefield, Millbrook, Sanderson, and Leesville high schools.
 

Administrators from each high school chose three or four students who had made a significant achievement in academics or community service, and Sergeant R.E. Benjamin, Senior Officer H.G. Kellar, Senior Officer V.J. Espinoza, and Senior Officer H.L. Morton picked them up from school on February 3 and brought them to Sparians Bowling Boutique and Bistro at North Hills, which provided free bowling and lunch for the students and officers.

To add a fun twist to the event, each officer was paired with a school team, and the teams engaged in a bit of friendly competition. At the end of three games, Wakefield High School’s team, coached by Benjamin, was declared the winner and got to take home the trophy. Sanderson’s team took second place, followed by Millbrook and Leesville. 

“Initially, the bowling idea was just a way to allow students to meet police officers in a setting outside normal interactions, to break down the authority-figure barrier that exists between citizens and the police,” said Benjamin. “Then we decided that we would like to honor a group of honor students for being positive examples to their fellow students. It was a very successful event, and I think the officers had just as good a time as the students did.”

The North District community officers are already looking forward to next year’s event, and they are grateful to Sparians for their generosity in hosting this event for the students.